Green Works Orlando Community Action Plan

In 2012, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer appointed a 20-member task force to make recommendations for a Community Action Plan to make Orlando one of the most environmentally-friendly cities in the Southeast. The task force considered input from 14 round table meetings with subject-matter experts on seven topics related to sustainability, in addition to public comment from community meetings and an interactive online forum.

The results of the task force were documented in the inaugural Greenworks Community Action Plan. In this plan, Orlando set a goal for government operations to be fully sustainable by 2040 by receiving all energy from renewable sources, utilizing sustainable amounts of water, eliminating waste to landfills and purchasing green products.

Over the past five years, the City has led by example to promote environmental stewardship, educate people about “environmentally conscious lifestyles” and encourage others to incorporate a concern for the environment into the everyday workings of government and private business. This comprehensive plan will help guide the City of Orlando’s efforts to making Orlando the most sustainable City in America by the year 2040. The plan outlines a strategy to help achieve goals in seven focus areas: Energy and Green Buildings, Local Food Systems, Green Economy, Livability, Solid Waste, Transportation and Water.

To succeed, the Green Works Orlando Community Action Plan needs the support, cooperation and commitment of our entire City. Government, businesses and residents each have a critical role in the effort to make Orlando an environmentally sustainable, socially inclusive and economically vibrant community. This plan promotes the education aspect of community outreach – it was designed to be informative and lead citizens to active engagement toward long-term sustainability. With its eye-catching layout and informative info graphics, this guide is a breath of fresh air to the standard government annual report. In the initial 3 months after the digital report was published, it was downloaded over 12,000 times. In addition to being an online resource guide for all citizens of Orlando, 40 copies were printed and distributed to community leaders in Orlando. The guide also promotes online citizen engagement through Engage Orlando, with over 8,500 visitors to the forum, 1,040 active participants and 64,000 page views.

Given the focus of this plan on the entire Orlando community, the City invested great effort in gaining broad engagement by community representatives. The Community Action Plan task force, comprised of Orlando’s businesses, institutions and non-profit leaders, wrote the content of the report based on their findings and community input. The City of Orlando’s Office of Communications and Neighborhood Relations graphics team produced the design of the report in-house. The total graphics budget of this report was $290, the printing cost of 40 copies.